Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Al "Aldous," "Alex," and others...Al the Changeling has a good thing going. Working as Aldous, an experienced human thief with a talent for efficiently reassigning ownership of valuables, he was valuable to the local chapter of the Boromar Clan. His halfling bosses knew he was a bit squeamish about violence, so they never asked him to outright kill or even rough people up. They sent him on errands where they needed someone to subtlely come away with someone else's things.

Then something happened. His boss, Toglo Boromar started seeming distracted, forgetting names and places, and even little inside jokes. Aldous figured it was stress. A new crew had, after all, started horning in on profits in Malleon's Gate, and it stressed Toglo out, so Aldous gave his boss a pass on the strangeness. When Toglo asked and then ordered Aldous to sneak into the home of a certain Half-Orc he blamed for all of his troubles, a guy called Hashri'im Hret, Aldous's patience was up. He told Toglo that it was time for he and Boromar Clan part ways, planning to trade his good reputation with a good position somewhere else in Sharn. Toglo was furious, but even the Boromar clan proved incapable of tracking down Aldous when he didn't want to be found.

A week later, the news broke that Hashri'im Hret had been brutally murdered. Aldous felt bad for the guy, figuring that Toglo found someone to get to him-someone brutal. Then, talking to his contacts in the streets Aldous found out something troubling: the watch had been tipped off that the killer was a hired knife by the name of Aldous. A hired knife in the employ of Boromar clan. Aldous went to Kundurak to clear out his accounts and found them frozen...with guards on hand to apprehend him. He got away, but knew that the good life was over.

Angry and betrayed, Al decided to clear the name of the life he so loved. He became Alex, the nephew of Aldous, an honest man framed for murder. Alex started following the clues, trying to figure out who really killed Hret, and why they convinced the watch to ignore Aldous's iron-clad alibi. That's how he met Ace.

Now, Ace has taken young Alex on as a partner. The deal with Uncle Aldous is to train Alex in the Inquisitive arts, and find a way to clear both of their names. In return, Aldous will bank-roll a premises and get them started in their own, independent, Inquisitive firm: Ace Investigations.

Stats: Al is a level 4 Changeling Rogue, using the D&D Essentials Thief. He fights with a short sword and is next to impossible to pin down.